2012 Asphalt Operations Safety Innovations

This award recognizes companies that develop innovative ideas or achieve practical outcomes leading to improved worker safety in a roadway, plant site or quarry environment, and whose safety practices are above and beyond normal safety practices. Congratulations to NAPA's 2012 award recipients. Read more about each safety innovation in the September/October 2013 edition of Asphalt Pavementmagazine.

The Safety Innovation Award winner is The Lane Construction Corporation, headquartered in Cheshire, Conneticut, for its construction of a temporary median-access bridge-and-ramp system. The strucutre was necessary to safely complete extensive repairs to an 8-mile stretch of I-85 in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. In the past, Lane successfully constructed median-access ramps from existing overpass bridges, but this temporary bridge is the first brand-new bridge-and-ramp system built to haul materials over traffic to access the median.

The impact of this new bridge was significant. This highway conveys more than 100,000 vehicles each day so the thousands of trips by construction vehicles and North Carolina Department of Transportation inspection staff were made safely, with no need to enter traffic, thanks to the new construction. This resulted in increased safety for both construction employees and the traveling public.

FINALIST Brannan Cos., Denver, Colo.Safety Mirror Policy

Brannan Companies of Denver, Colorado, earned finalists honors for designing a safety mirror that helps drivers see directly in front of large trucks, particularly tractor trailer and tandem vehicles. While having mirrors on the front hood is common practice in the industry, this additional mirror helps drivers with blind spots.

Kokosing Construction Company of Westerville, Ohio, where three employees came up with our next safety innovation — to use the foreman’s pickup truck as a paint striper. The crew created a truck-mounted paint striper so that the “walk behind” paint striper, who places the temporary strips in the work-zone, was no longer separated from the rest of the paving operation, especially at night, on the interstate with little protection.

Payne & Dolan of Waukesha, Wisconsin developed a formal pre-task planning book that encourages every employee to participate in accident prevention. The book’s title — “TRACK” — is an acronym that stands for “Think through the task; Recognize the hazard; Access the consequences; Control the hazard; and Keep safety first in all tasks.” Each worker carries the pocket-sized book during the day, so they can referr to it when encountering common hazards found on highway construction sites.

Southern Minnesota Construction, an Oldcaslte Materials Company, located in Mankato, Minnesota, created a fall-protection system that seccures workers while they’re loading distributor trucks. The system was built as a folding catwalk with handrails to access the top of the distributor truck. Counterweights were added to help in lowering and raising the catwalk. Finally, a guide board was installed for proper positioning of the trucks.